Japan crime syndicate publishes magazine for gangsters

Includes poetry page, senior thugs' fishing diaries

Published: 07/13/2013 at 1:08 AM

(Agence France-Presse) Japan’s biggest yakuza organized crime group has published a magazine for its members that includes a poetry page and senior gangsters’ fishing diaries, reports said on Wednesday.

The eight-page publication has been distributed among the Yamaguchi-gumi, a sprawling syndicate believed to have about 27,700 members, in a bid to strengthen unity in the group, the daily Sankei Shimbun reported.

The front page of the “Yamaguchi-gumi Shinpo” (newsletter) carries a first person piece by the group’s don, Kenichi Shinoda, instructing younger members in the values and disciplines they should observe, the Sankei said.

Shinoda writes that times have become hard for Japan’s mafia and that they can no longer rely on their “brand” to generate profitability in their operations, the Mainichi Shimbun said.